i knew for sure that john kerry won all three of his debates against george bush. but of course he didn't. this is a good time to think about what it means to win a debate. in high school and college debates there are judges to decide which debaters who actually won. those debates have real winners. winners who get real trophies. no one got a trophy but plenty of people guessed at who would have gotten a trophy. the question is they were debating for votes and those votes wouldn't be counted until next month. so all of the winner talk you have been hearing is just guessing and all of the guessers have been wrong before. my guess is about who won debates have been wrong many times which is why it was so easy for me to resist guessing who one last night. you know court reporters are smarter about this. court reporters have seen high priced defense lawyers deliver brilliant closing arguments. court reporters don't even say who won. they wait, they wait hours sometimes days for the jury to vote and then tell them who won. court reporters see lawyers with the best argum